Court ban on Farrow

New York (AP) - A judge has told Mia Farrow not to take her and Woody Allen's children out of the country and turned down an attempt by Allen's lawyers to set up a visits schedule.

Neither Allen nor Farrow showed up for the hour-long hearing yesterday, the first round of their custody dispute. Lawyers for the film- maker asked the state Supreme Court Justice, Phyllis Gangel-Jacob, to remove the children's passports, saying Farrow had threatened to take Satchel, 4, Dylan, 7, and Moses, 14, out of the country.

Judge Gangel-Jacob then told lawyers for Farrow that she was prohibited from taking the children out of the US. The judge set a closed-door hearing for yesterday evening, to be attended by Allen and Farrow, for them to try to resolve their dispute. Allen sued Farrow for custody of their three children on 13 August.

The dispute has been complicated by child abuse allegations against Allen, 56, and by his romance with Farrow's adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Farrow Previn, believed to be between 19 and 21.